ZoneAlarm 8.0 offers effective basic personal firewall protection at a fantastic pricefree! But if you want advanced features like automatic program control configuration, exploit prevention, or behavior-based operating-system protection, you'll have to upgrade to the paid version.

Along with the firewall, you can install ZoneAlarm's Spy Blocker Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Spy Blocker is a glorified search toolbar powered by Ask.com with one special addition: It watches the sites you visit and blocks any that are known to host spyware. I tested Spy Blocker by attempting to re-download all of the malware samples that I use for testing. Naturally, some of the sites don't exist anymore, but quite a few are still around. The toolbar's performance was disappointingit missed almost two-thirds of the sites. On the other hand, it did block a third of them, which is better than no protection.

ZoneAlarm also offers a very simple Game Mode that suppresses all pop-up queries, either answering all with "Allow" or answering all with "Deny." The Game Mode window warns that using Game Mode "may reduce the security of your system." Certainly it will if you set it to allow all access automatically. Game Mode is safer with a cutting-edge firewall that makes its own intelligent security decisions, like Norton Internet Security 2009.

ZoneAlarm 8.0 handles all the basic tasks of a personal firewall, but that's as far as it goes. If you want advanced features like SmartDefense Advisor and OSFirewall, you'll have to spring for one of the paid editions of ZoneAlarm. The new user interface is a welcome change, but it's about the only change. Still, ZoneAlarm remains a dependable choice when there's no budget for security.

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Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted by readers. By 1990, he had become PC Magazine's technical editor, and a coast-to-coast telecommuter. His "User to User" column supplied readers with tips...
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